Newsletter

Arena update, downtown tourism come before Savannah council

Progress on an arena, a raging debate on downtown tourism and a brewing dispute over more liquor and gambling in the Victorian neighborhood.

The Savannah City Council will address those and other issues at its morning workshop and its afternoon meeting today.

The key items:

• TOURISM: Members of the Tourism Advisory Committee will present recommendations to council following more than a year’s review of tourism ordinances and issues. Mayor Edna Jackson and Acting City Manager Stephanie Cutter have said they support a committee recommendation that calls for a moratorium on any new tour vehicles or expansion for at least six months.

“It’s for the sake of coming up with a tourism management plan of what we already have here,” said Vaughnette Goode Walker, chairwoman of the committee, adding that even with tourism growth, “...we want that visitor experience to remain the same.”

In a separate vote, the committee also unanimously agreed it did not support removing language from a city ordinance that would lift a ban on double-decker buses, even though backers say the new buses are smaller.

• ARENA: Council members will review progress from a citizens’ arena advisory committee. Alderman Tony Thomas has pushed for an update and an economic feasibility study after opposition has mounted on a cruise initiative he backs. City staff expect to have a request for proposals written by February, which will evaluate four sites: the existing Civic Center, Savannah River Landing, the Springfield Canal site and a spot near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Fahm Street. One location dropped from consideration is property at Interstate 95 and Ga. 204, a location favored by former City Manager Rochelle Small-Toney.

• LIQUOR: Residents of the Victorian Neighborhood Association are opposing an application for a package liquor license for Kelly Food Store, which would operate at 1220 Habersham St. They cite the proliferation of existing convenience shops. Two years ago, the neighborhood successfully fought a petition to turn the former Little Kings Restaurant and Beauty Shop into a convenience store with liquor and gaming machines.

“We just want to keep the neighborhood intact,” said Maurice Norman, president of the association. “We already have in a one-mile radius 11 convenience stores that sell beer or wine.”

All but one, he added, have gaming machines.

“That does nothing for the environment or the welfare or the well-being of our neighborhood,” he said.

Other action

In other action, council is expected to approve:

• A mural policy for public art that includes an improved process for neighborhood notification before a work is installed.

• A $987,290 contract to clear the site and install a 10-foot sound barrier to protect the Tatemville neighborhood from noise from Interstate 516. The Industrial Company won the bid.

• Transferring $500,000 in SPLOST 2 funds for sidewalk and drainage improvements along White Bluff Road and Coffee Bluff Road. Chatham County approved the transfer of the special purpose local option sales tax funds to the city in December. The project was part of the 1993-98 SPLOST list, and Thomas has urged the county to release funds, saying the Coffee Bluff Marina project has further increased the need to get the improvements finished.

WANT TO GO?

WHAT: Savannah City Council

WHEN: 10 a.m. workshop; 2 p.m. regular meeting

WHERE: City Hall, 2 E. Bay St.

ON THE WEB: watch live at savannahnow.com or follow reporter @LesleyConn on Twitter